If you've been waiting for the customisable VR hangouts from Ready Player One to become a reality, now's the time to get excited. VRChat has now been launched on Steam Early Access, offering a tonne of personable play spaces to hang out with friends in VR and out. VRChat is …
Read More »Jury orders Oculus to pay $500 million to Zenimax
It looks like Zenimax's $2 billion lawsuit against Oculus wasn't something that could easily be brushed off after all as today, a US jury ruled in Zenimax's favour. Following the ruling, Oculus must pay $500 million to Zenimax, with $50 million of it coming from Palmer Luckey himself and $150 …
Read More »HTC exec. claims 2018 will see VR/AR micro-apartments go on sale
Don't worry if rising house and flat prices make it seem impossible to get on the property ladder, maybe one day soon you can buy yourself a miniature apartment designed to be expanded through the use of virtual reality. That's what HTC China's Regional President of Vive, Alvin Wang Graylin …
Read More »HTC aiming for ‘close to smartphone’ upgrade cycle for VR Headsets
If you are looking to jump into virtual reality at some point soon, then you may want to prepare for a fairly quick upgrade cycle. According to HTC's China Regional President of Vive, we can expect the VR Headset upgrade cycle to sit somewhere between the smartphone and console upgrade …
Read More »Virtual reality can reduce injection pain, claims new study
Nobody likes being injected, especially not children, but it turns out that distraction and setting can play a big part in how traumatic the experience is. Having kids put on a virtual reality headset and view relaxing scenes can help reduce the amount of pain felt while receiving the injections. …
Read More »TPCast partners with Lattice for wireless VR roll out
TPCast, the company behind the recently debuted wireless upgrade kit for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, has announced a partnership with Lattice Semiconductors for a number of the solution's internal components. Lattice provides the HDMI bridge which makes it possible to wirelessly transmit data that would traditionally require a wired …
Read More »Tiltbrush short film visualises the mixed reality future of music
Predicting the future of anything is never easy, but one VR artist has taken a stab at predicting what the future of music might be like in 2033. Adam Dylewski has built a short-film entirely within the VR painting title, Tiltbrush, called the Future of Music, extrapolating how today's technology …
Read More »Valve confirms more SteamVR headsets on the way
While the HTC Vive has enjoyed many months on the market as the only headset to use Valve's SteamVR tracking technology, it won't remain that way for much longer. In fact, soon there could be quite a few SteamVR headsets on the market, as Valve has confirmed that around 500 …
Read More »HTC Vive trackers used to create real-world companion cube
Virtual reality hardware can be used to modify the real world too. Two artists have made use of a HTC Vive's tracked controllers for realtime projection mapping on real world objects, letting them create customisable projection screens on any surface, 3D models and even a movable companion cube. Traditionally the …
Read More »Ark Park tech demo shows off VR interaction, motion capture
Snail Games, the maker of games like Taichi Panda and Black Gold Online, has released a new technical demonstration of what we can expect when its ARK: Survival Evolved spin-off VR title, Ark Park, lands later this year. You can interact with foliage, explore a large-scale visitor centre and of …
Read More »The ZeniMax/Oculus lawsuit could have a huge impact on VR industry
It seems that the ZeniMax VS Oculus case could have much wider implications for virtual reality as a whole should Oculus lose this case. Not only could losing hurt Facebook's bottom line, but if ZeniMax is found to be in the right, then the court could opt for an injunction, …
Read More »VR locomotion solved? The CAOTS system
One virtual reality developer claims to have solved some of the major problems with getting around in virtual reality beyond room scale. Called the CAOTS system, it utilises head bob tracking and arm motion to calculate your pace and lets you move around large, virtual environments while bobbing, walking and …
Read More »Zuckerburg to defend Oculus in court today as ZeniMax trial continues
The Zenimax VS Oculus case has finally made its way to court, with the former defending itself from a slew of accusations including the theft of trade secrets, breaking of NDAs and the destruction of evidence. According to Zenimax, Zuckerburg may have even known about all of this prior to …
Read More »Baidu opens augmented reality development lab
Chinese search giant Baidu has announced the opening of a brand new branch of the company which will focus entirely on augmented reality. The new research facility is part of a $200 million investment by the firm which it hopes will drive future profits, partly through the creation of new, augmented …
Read More »Updated: Zenimax fires back at Oculus with a statement of its own
Update: Last week, the trial for Zenimax's $2 billion lawsuit against Oculus kicked off. This lawsuit has been brewing for a couple of years now and while Oculus has tried to brush it off as a wasteful attempt to try and cash in on VR, Zenimax has remained persistent in …
Read More »G2A’s first game is a VR themepark
Game key selling marketplace G2A has been working on selling its own first party titles too and has now launched its first one. Called G2A Land, the virtual theme park exists in multiple dimensions, as you can step right inside the world using a virtual reality headset. The game is …
Read More »Oculus says Zenimax lawsuit is wasteful as trial kicks off
Way back in 2014, Zenimax Media filed a lawsuit against Oculus VR, accusing former id Software employee, John Carmack of theft, while also bashing Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey. Now this week, the trial has finally kicked off with Oculus sticking to its guns, ruling out the lawsuit as a “wasteful …
Read More »Obama’s farewell address can be viewed in VR
Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama gave his farewell speech last night and for the first time in history, it can be viewed in its entirety in 360 degree video form. That means that if you have a compatible VR headset, be it PC or mobile based, you can take in …
Read More »Oculus co-founder sees mobile being the future of VR
While Oculus initially found its footing in the PC gaming community, since being acquired by Facebook several years back, the company has expanded its scope significantly. Over time we have seen the company expand its focus into other areas and now, it looks like one of the company's co-founders is …
Read More »HTC Vive outselling Oculus Rift 2:1, claims Tim Sweeney
According to the founder of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, the HTC Vive is outselling the Oculus Rift by a ratio of 2:1. Claiming that the reason for the greater success rate of the Vive is its open-platform design, Sweeney said he expects this trend to continue and that ultimately open …
Read More »HTC Vive Wireless Upgrade Kit coming this year
The HTC Vive already offers an excellent VR experience but given the headset's focus on room-scale experiences, the wires can occasionally get in the way. Fortunately, Vive owners will be able to do away with those pesky wires completely in just a matter of months as HTC has revealed that …
Read More »Alien Covenant is getting a VR tie-in experience
The Alien franchise is set to make a return this year with the release of Alien: Covenant and to celebrate that fact, it's getting a virtual reality tie-in experience. Set to release alongside the movie, the VR experience will be a paid for addition, so here's hoping that means it …
Read More »Oculus VR’s UK retail strategy is bizarre
Oculus Rift headsets may be one of the most popular among gamers, but you wouldn't know it by the hardware's availability. Despite still requiring quite a hefty PC to run its many games and experiences, almost no gaming outlets in the UK stock the headsets – in what seems like …
Read More »Valve may be prepping for a new VR controller devkit
Earlier this year Valve showed off a new prototype virtual reality controller that looked like a mix between the HTC Vive's wands and Oculus' Touch. Now it may be preparing to send that out to developers, as support for a new prototype controller has been added to SteamVR. Spotted by …
Read More »VR Retro Arcade now supports light gun games
If you hanker for the long-gone days of dark and dingy arcades, with blinking and blooping machines with youngsters huddled round them, then New Retro Arcade: Neon is your VR dream come true. In its latest update too, the developers have added light gun support, meaning Time Crisis 2 and …
Read More »Squanchtendo is working on its first, fully funded game
Squanchtendo, the company formed from the vocal half of the creative team behind Rick and Morty, is now working on its first, fully funded game. Unfortunately the details are almost non-existent at this point, but it's good to know that Accounting won't be all we see from the start up …
Read More »Most of the top 10 VR games on Steam are free
Getting on the high-end consumer virtual reality bandwagon is not cheap. Whether you opt for an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, you have to spend hundreds of pounds on a headset and controllers, even if you already own the gaming PC to power it all. Fortunately then, some of the …
Read More »Rivvr’s wireless VR for Vive and Rift add-on to appear at CES
Right now one of the big focusses for Virtual Reality headset makers is removing the wire. Valve has been working on turning the HTC Vive wireless and Oculus revealed its own wireless prototype just a few short months ago. However, we may not need to wait for next generation of …
Read More »Samsung is working on a Hololens competitor, new Gear VR coming
Samsung has been dipping its toes in the virtual reality market for a couple of years now with the help of Oculus and next year, the company will be stepping things up. Not only will there be a successor to the Gear VR but there will also be a mixed …
Read More »Ark Park is an educational Survival Evolved, in VR
ARK: Survival Evolved is coming to virtual reality, but not in the exact same guise as its original release. This isn't some Survival of the Fittest game mode either, but an educational, open world of dinosaurs and environments to explore. Coming in 2017, virtual reality is getting tickets to Ark …
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